


Against All Odds

by AvatarAzulaang



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Angst and Drama, Angst and Romance, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Drama, Drama & Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Psychological Drama, Redemption, Romance, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26532901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAzulaang/pseuds/AvatarAzulaang
Summary: AU in which Ozai committed the Air Nomad genocide and Azula has made it her personal mission to hunt down the Avatar. Basically the normal ATLA storyline but with an additional focus on Azula, her mental state and eventual redemption, as well as fleshing out Aang a little and giving those two a special connection and more interactions. Enemies to lovers, opposite sides of a war style story and eventual Azulaang. Angst and Drama but a happy ending and I'll probably post a followup fluff story. No Kataang (or at least very very little) but they're still great friends, maybe eventual Zutara. I tried to change the setting and characters as little as possible and keep the feel of the original series, while still writing a realistic and unique story. Not sure about the rating yet, but I'll warn you if I do something explicit or triggering
Relationships: Aang & Azula (Avatar), Aang/Azula (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37
Collections: Azula: The Ambiguous Redemption





	Against All Odds

_Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. For one hundred years, Avatar Roku managed to halt their ruthless attacks. But even an Avatar can only live so long, and eventually, his old age got to him as well. Now the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the War and all our hope rests on the new Avatar being reborn into the Air Nomads and finishing what Roku could not._

* * *

It reeked of burned flesh. Screams could be heard outside, Monks running around in agony as flames consumed their robes and burned away their skin, Firebenders gasping on the ground as the air was sucked from their lungs. Lightning crackled overhead and blasted through the temple walls, like in a thunderstorm, but no thunder ever followed. The lightning wasn't natural, none of this was.

In the middle of it all, hidden away in a tiny chamber, a little boy sat looking out through a small gap in the wall. Tears were welling in his eyes, but he would not cry, the words of Monk Gyatso still ringing in his ear.

"Stay here Aang, and do not make a sound. No matter what you hear, no matter what you see, promise me that you will stay put!"

"Gyatso, what's happening? I'm scared!"

The old monk had hesitated for a second, before forcing a smile on his face.

"Everything will be alright my boy. Tomorrow we'll chug a fruit pie at the Fire Lord and it'll be like nothing ever happened." He had seemed to be fighting to get the words out but managed to nonetheless. "I love you Aang, and I'll always be with you if you need me. Never forget that."

At that, the old man had closed the door and rushed outside to face the intruders. That was where he laid now, unmoving, between the corpses of countless Fire Nation soldiers.

The little boy, cowering in his tiny hole, could not understand what had happened, but he doubted they would be throwing fruit pies at anyone anytime soon. Countless soldiers had rushed past his chamber, time and time again, he wondered if one of them would turn to the side, take a closer look and notice him, but none ever did.

Finally, the commotion was settling down. The soldiers, shouting words he couldn't understand, came to a standstill. A man stepped onto the Temple grounds. He was tall with long black hair and an even longer pointed beard. He wore dark red robes and in his hair, he carried some kind of gold jewelry that Aang didn't recognize. His posture was as straight as a marble pillar and his walk held an air of superiority like even the ground would move out of the way if this man only commanded it. It wasn't the man that caught Aang's attention though, but the two little kids trailing aimlessly behind him. A little boy, barely older than himself, was walking closeby to the man, almost hiding behind his leg. And a little girl, who didn't seem to understand what was going on any more than Aang did was wandering around, curiously checking out the sight. Something about her intrigued him, he moved closer to the gap, trying to get a better look, when suddenly he froze.

She was staring right at him.

He stared back, not daring to move a muscle, hoping that maybe she hadn't seen him.

But she had, unmistakably. Staring fiercely into his eyes, gold on grey, she seemed to be as frozen as he was.

His heart was racing, he figured this would be it for him. She would tell one of the soldiers and he'd be exposed and they'd do to him whatever they had done to all the others.

But she didn't. She just kept staring.

Suddenly, one of the men stepped forward.

"The temple is secured, sir. All remaining airbenders have been executed." He was addressing the tall man in the red robes.

"And the Avatar?"

"Must've been one of the children, sir. There's no way he survived."

"Fool!" He roared. "If you did not find him, he is still out there!" He seemed to regain his composure now, stroking his beard. "But no matter. With all the airbenders dead and their temples destroyed, how much can a little boy alone really do?"

The entire time, the girl was still staring at him. Aang didn't know much about what the Avatar was, but he knew that it was him. And he couldn't help thinking the girl knew too. He hoped his fear didn't show in his eyes, but he knew better.

"Zuko! Azula!" the man shouted, and for a second Aang thought he saw the same fear in her eyes, but it was gone not a second later.

"Come on, we're leaving!" Finally, the girl stirred, turning around and running back to the man who had spoken to her.

As she was led away, she turned around one last time, but Aang was no longer there.

* * *

**In this AU Roku learned how to prolong his life from Kyoshi which is why Aang's birth and the following genocide was delayed, but not much else changes. Aang is very young in this chapter, like maybe five, Idk how children work.**

**I'm thinking about making this a soulmate AU (with a unique twist) but I'm not sure yet if it's necessary so let me know if you'd like to see that.**

**For the first book Azula will kinda replace Zhao. A lot of things will happen the same way or very similarly to the original show so I won't bore you with those episodes and instead only write what changes. LMK if you want quick recaps of what's missing in the A/N's.**

**I'm staying so close to canon for two reasons. For one, I like to imagine what the actual show would've been like if it had been built around Azulaang instead of Kataang and that's what I'm trying to do here. Secondly, this is my first longer project so I like to have a basic** **structure that I can fall back on if I run out of ideas. If I get more confident in my writing I might divert from canon a little more.**


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